Alright! 9th Chapter!


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"Blah"-person speaking...'Blah'-person thinking..."Blah"-Demon speaking...'Blah'-Demon thinking..."Blah"-Memory speaking(they don't think)


Leaves of Steel, Chapter 9
Land of Waves, Central Forest
Naruto was standing alone in the forest, the only sound was that of a falling tree, which he had cut down seconds ago with a giant blade protruding from his right hand.

'Damn, I'm tired...I'll go back now...' thought the blonde, as he walked carefully towards the bridge builder's house.


Tazuna's Pad: 9:30 PM
As he neared Tazuna's house, Naruto heard a sniffling sound coming from Tazuna's Grandson's room. Naruto, wondering what it was, walked up the wall to get a better look. He immediately saw Inari crying, staring out towards the sea.

Naruto jumped the railing and walked up towards the miserable child, with a comforting smile on his face.

"Hey, Inari. Are you okay?" Naruto asked carefully.

The small boy looked upwards, tears streaming down his face, "Naruto-san...I'm afraid...Gato is going to kill you all..." the boy said, arms around his own knees.

Naruto was taken aback that someone was going to kill him, so he demanded of Inari, "OY! who's this Gato guy!? Why does he want us dead!??

Inari looked down at his feet, "Gato is a shipping magnate, and the bridge my grandpa is building is threatening Gato's control of Wave country. The bridge will allow us to trade freely, and break out of the poverty that Gato sent us into. You guys are helping my grandpa free us, so Gato is going to kill you." Inari finished his long speech, then began looking at his feet.

Naruto clenched his fist, remembering Gato's henchmen. He had beaten them down and he could do it again. That Zabuza wasn't so tough, Naruto could easily kill him.

"Inari," began Naruto, "I will stop Gato and free your lands. When you are protecting something, you are always stronger than the one who is attacking it. I will protect your lands, but I need your help." after saying these words, Naruto laid his right hand over Inari's open left.

Naruto moved metal out of his body, folding it again and again into the shape of a bow with metal string.

"Inari! I want you to protect the ones you care about from those that want to hurt them." Naruto said firmly. while crafting a full quiver of arrows, imbued with his chakra.

Inari nodded, wiping away his tears, as he grabbed the bow and arrows from Naruto.

"By the way, don't tell them how I made these things, okay?" Naruto asked, to which Inari nodded again in confirmation.

Naruto went inside to bed, where he lay down and attempted to go to sleep. Before he could however, Sasuke opened the sliding door and sat down next to Naruto.

"Hey...Naruto..." began the raven-haired Uchiha prodigy.

"What's up Sasuke?" Naruto asked unsure of Sasuke's reason for entering.

"Thanks for helping me get my Sharingan...Would...would you like to spar again tomorrow?" Sasuke asked quietly.

Naruto only had to ponder for a brief moment before answering, "Sure Sasuke, I'll spar with you tomorrow, get ready to get your ass kicked!" shouted Naruto.

Sasuke laughed, and then left the room as Naruto Began to sleep.


Naruto' s Dreamscape
Naruto stood in the battlefield, as the Dragon's corpse began shatter away. Naruto looked at the horizon, to see an obsidian spire on the furthest hill. Naruto constructed a war-hammer, short, yet terribly effective. He pulled out his armor, smooth and shiny, as the mental moon shone upon it, its rays bouncing off of it like an aura. A smooth helmet was also constructed, banded with spikes.

Rapid footsteps could be heard, as Naruto encountered a mounted skeleton, its eyes glowing red. The skeleton was wielding a large spear, its tip glistening with silver. The skeleton charged, as it threw the spear, hurtling towards Naruto.

Naruto stopped the spear with his mind, and shattered it into pieces, as he swung his war-hammer into the skeleton's torso. The armor-crushing blow knocked the rider off of his horse, who evaporated into a horse-hilted sword. The offending skeleton gripped it, and swung at Naruto. Naruto extended metal arms from his leg, halting the attack, and ripping off the skeleton's armor.

Blonde hair gleamed from under Naruto's helm, as he flipped over the brute, and crushed its spinal cord with his hammer. The skeleton fell apart, and released its orb of memory.

"GENETIC MEMORY: Evil Sealing Method: Soul Seal"

Naruto watched as a faint glow appeared underneath his gauntlets, which he took off, to witness a curved triangle tattoo settle into his right and left hands. The boy stepped back as a white light emanated and disappeared from his hands.

'That's weird...whatever...' thought Naruto as he put his gauntlets back on.

The gauntlets glowed white, and, when the light receded, were pure white, with golden inlays. Naruto then gripped his war-hammer, which underwent a similar transformation. The hammer now matched his gloves, and a white steam was constantly emitting from it.

Naruto didn't pay a second thought to the matter, as he dashed off towards that tower.

As the boy reached the bottom of the hill the tower rested on, a flock of gigantic black birds descended upon him, swooping with their serrated slicing talons.

Naruto raised a dome of metal, and blasted it outwards, stunning the raptors. The dome broke away into shards of silvery metal, the same color as his gauntlets and hammer. When the shards hit the birds they slipped through the birds' flesh, leaving gaping holes where they once were.

The cries of the birds resonated through the sky. Naruto caught on quickly, and controlled the fallen pieces to swirl around him in a spinning dome. The helpless birds were soon reduced to ash. Naruto began to start his trek up the hill, when he saw a massive horde of enemies approach, shaking their shields and rattling their sabers.

Naruto flipped off of the hill, and used his metal vines as stilts, moving towards the army at incredible speeds. He jumped directly overhead of them, and re-formed his war-hammer into a longbow. Naruto launched silvery arrows by the dozens, as wave after wave of his foes fell to the ground. Those enemies who raised their shields survived Naruto's Barrage, and met him in hand-to-hand combat when he reached the ground.

Naruto broke his bow into two, equally deadly, blades, as he tore into one of his foes' flesh. The zombie cried in pain as the blades melted through his dry flesh, and cut him in twain. Naruto continued with his dance of death, severing heads, arms, anything his swords could touch. Blow after blow fell upon skeletons and zombies as Naruto's blades cut their ranks down by the dozen.

Naruto let his anger flow freely, and grey chakra began to wave about him, increasing his speed with every strike. When a certain skeleton attacked him, it was cut to shreds by the chakra itself, followed by Naruto's twin blades. The blue-eyed boy released sheets of metal, which wrapped around 14 of the opponents, crushing them into a fine powder. Bones flew about as Naruto used his gauntlets to deliver skull-shattering blows to many a cranial cap of a skeleton.

One final Skeleton appeared to Naruto, larger then the rest, with a shimmering black set of plate armor. Naruto brought his two blades side-by-side, and conjoined them into a massive cleaver. The swing met the armor, and was also met by resistance. The black metal began to glow, and the cleaver rebounded out of Naruto's grip. Naruto sent a palm thrust towards the armor. His right palm stopped when he hit the torso plate, and began to glow fiercely. The Curved Triangle seal projected itself upon its target, and Naruto shouted, "SOUL SEAL!".

Black steam flew into the seal, and the armor momentarily reverted to grey before shattering. At that point the memories of the entire army began to rise. Naruto kept his palm raised, and the balls of light fixated upon that spot, before pulling themselves into the black swirling ball. when all of the memories were inside, the ball began to shudder violently, before moving swiftly towards the dark tower.

Naruto hastened with the orb, and reached the gates, unguarded. The ball came to a rest, hovering gently in front of the giant doors.

'I think I'm supposed to open these doors...might as well...' thought the boy, as he pressed against the massive doors.

The way was now clear, and the ball hurried with Naruto towards a pedestal in the center of the towers floor. Naruto looked up, to find that the tower was hollow. He ran to the pedestal, to watch the dark ball sink into a depression of a sword. The ooze the ball became gravitated towards the hilt of the sword-shape, forming only the hilt.

"Good job boy." said a voice inside the tower, to which Naruto looked around frantically, "In front of you, mortal." Naruto looked to see that the sword was pulsating blue.

Naruto connected the things Elric had told him, to reason that Stormbringer was speaking to him.

"Storm-Stormbringer?" the boy asked nervously, stuttering.

The sword seemed to chuckle, "That's correct child. I am the god of the void, wrongfully imprisoned inside this sword. If you will collect the rest of me, I will teach you great things. If you refuse, I will destroy your 'Cerebral Castle'. But don't fret, I have a gift for you..."

Naruto had just been spoken to by a god, and was shaking as he responded, "What gift?"

Stormbringer plunged the room into shadows, illuminating only Naruto and the sword.

"My gift is power. Like the power I gave you with what you now call 'Flay'. I give you two more words of destruction. Use them well; 'Rend', which shatters the internal structure you are touching of any being or structure, and 'Phase', so that you may convert yourself to the Ethereal Realm , where you can slip past anybody, or THROUGH them for that matter. In the Ethereal Realm, your body is taken too, so you need not worry about protecting it. When you are there, you can not only speak to me, but also see energy, ghosts, and lines of fate. The lines will lead to what you need. You can also see the standard world, so death can be easily dealt." The mighty god of the void proclaimed.

"But that is all I shall give freely to you at this point. When you complete my sword, I shall give it to you, but cannot act upon you the same way as its previous owner, that white-haired Elric. That is all. LEAVE!" with that shout, Naruto was forced into the waking world.


Tazuna's Pad: 7:45 AM
Naruto woke up with a start, breathing heavily as Inari and the others came rushing in. Tazuna, Tsunami, Kakashi, Inari, Sakura, Sai, and Sasuke were all there.

Tsunami asked Naruto worriedly, "Are you all right, Naruto-san? We heard you speaking Dark words in your sleep."

Naruto nodded, and Inari gave him a hug before leaving with his mom and grandpa. Sasuke, Sai, and Sakura left, leaving Kakashi with Naruto.

"Naruto-kun..." began Kakashi, "I didn't want to bring this up with the others around, but why are your gauntlets pure white? They were silver when we left, with platinum spirals if I remember, but now they are a brilliant white, with golden curved triangles." Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow in inquiry.

Naruto took his gauntlets off to reveal the curved triangles. He presented them to Kakashi.

"Naruto...that-that-that seal is the fourth's. How did you get it, I looked for it everywhere, but couldn't find it?" Kakashi asked with hearts in his eyes.

"I found them in my mind. Don't tell anybody about this, okay?" Naruto pleaded with Kakashi.

Kakashi thought it over, before flipping up his headband to memorize the seal, and saying, "Our little secret, I got it...wait...I can't see it with my Sharingan..." Kakashi murmured before walking out.

Naruto lifted himself out of bed, and walked downstairs for breakfast, taking his gauntlets off.


Central Forest: 8:30
Naruto stood opposite from Sasuke, two tonfa in his hands. Naruto watched as Sasuke turned his sharingan on.

The boy remembered the words of his red-pupiled friend, Elric, 'Naruto, as much as you want to, do not cut with your metal when you are simply sparring. The metal is connected to Stormbringer, and you will kill your opponent while taking their soul.'

Naruto ran at Sasuke and began his dance of battle. Sasuke leaned back from Naruto's hit, and kicked Naruto in the side. The foot connected with Naruto's metal-enforced body, and, as such, did no damage. The blond-headed boy flipped over Sasuke and attempted a hit to the lower back. Sasuke saw it coming, and threw Naruto into a tree, which Naruto gripped with chakra and sprung off of. Naruto Summoned 10 Kage Bunshin, and used them to corner Sasuke.

Sasuke's single tomoe in each eye saw the plan and allowed Sasuke to bring a single Kage Bunshin into existence by copying Naruto. Sasuke and his clone fought furiously against Naruto, but were unable to break the metal-enforced clones. The real Naruto switched himself out with a log that he 'henge'd into himself.

In the branches, Naruto pulled off the reflex-enhancing Jutsu perfectly, and jumped down to engage Sasuke in a battle of reactions.

'How is Naruto moving that fast' wondered Sasuke as Naruto slipped past his foot and hit him in the stomach.

Naruto activated his Burning Hands with Blurred Hands to hit Sasuke in many key areas. Sasuke fell down, but got back up, and launched a Grand Fireball straight for Naruto.

Naruto said "Phase" quietly and let Sasuke's fireball pass through him.

In the Ethereal Plane, Naruto saw red lines leading to spots on Sasuke's body, as well as a swirling mass which he figured to be Stormbringer above him.

Sasuke looked around as Naruto disappeared, and his Kage Bunshin burst away. Sasuke looked wildly with his Sharingan but was unable to see Naruto until he came back behind Sasuke, delivering a kick to his spine, before He heard Naruto say "Phase" and disappeared again.

This continued for 27 seconds before Sasuke fell to the ground, breathing heavily as he turned off his Sharingan, raising his hands in submission. Naruto shimmered back into existence about a meter in front of Sasuke.

"Naruto," began Sasuke, "how did you do that?" Sasuke asked frantically.

"By being Naruto!" teased Naruto, before stepping up to Sasuke, and ran his shimmering hands over Sasuke to see if it could heal wounds.

The glowing hands made the black steam of injury dissipate from Sasuke's wounds, as they vanished. Sasuke stood thunderstuck as Naruto fixed all of the bruises he had caused.

"T-Thanks, Naruto..." muttered Sasuke before walking off to recover his Chakra.

Naruto lay down in the grass, and stared up at the sky.


Naruto's Mindscape
"Good, he is actually using what I gave him. Not like that Elric, who just needed me like an addict needs a drug. Corrupting this boy will be fun indeed..." murmured Stormbringer, while entwining more memories into skeletons and zombies.


End of Chapter 9
"Knuckle crack the bone, 21 to win."

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